When I was a teenager I had a hand-written list of book titles taped to the inside of my desk. The list was long, and included Robinson Crusoe, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice and many more famous works.
Everyone had heard of them, and they were books I felt I had to read, because I had been told they were ‘classics’ and if you were at all interested in literature and books, you should have read them.
‘Should’ is an interesting word here. Even then I vaguely understood that some books had risen to the top of the pile, and were important; they merited special attention, though I doubt I could have said why, or who had decided this.
Eventually I did read most of them and enjoyed them – thus learning that to be a classic the book does not just have to be culturally important but also highly readable and memorable, a vital literary experience that transcends the time in which it was written.
However, as far as I remember, none of those canonical books was from Wales, or indeed, written by a Welsh author.
So it is wonderful, many years later, that my story The Candleman, a novel for children originally published in 1994, is one of the Firefly Children’s Classics from Wales, as is Malachy Doyle’s wonderful novel Georgie.
Set on the marshy and water-logged Gwent Levels, the setting for The Candleman is one that I find fascinating; a tract of land largely below sea-level and protected from the raging tide of the Severn only by its formidable sea-wall and a complex system of reens and gouts and sluices. It allowed me to write a book where the river herself is a character, under her Welsh name, Hafren, her desire to flood the land both a personal revenge and an ecological ever-present danger.
Mixed in with this landscape is the dilemma of the main character, Meurig, who believes his soul to be trapped in a normal-looking piece of white candle, a man cursed and under threat from his greatest enemy, the river herself. This motif is of course, an ancient one, re-occurring in the literature of many cultures, and one of the great pleasures of writing for me is re-working motifs and legends and fairy-tale tropes into modern books with contemporary characters.
Myths are classics in themselves – in the mythic world every story is ever-young and every magic still works.
The Candleman was a success on its initial publication, and was lucky enough to win the Tir na n’Og Prize for its year, for the best English-language Welsh children’s novel. In many ways the winners of this prize over the years, and other works on the shortlist, represent a possible canon of Welsh children’s literature in both languages. The list includes stellar authors such as T Llew Jones, Manon Steffan Ros, Jenny Nimmo, Jackie Morris and Daniel Morden, among many more, all possible future classics, all great reads.
The word ‘classic’ implies not only literary merit and readability but a certain longevity. It seems to suggest that these books will outlast their time, and often the life of their author. I certainly hope that will be the case for the books on Firefly’s list. It is high time that the quality of children’s fiction in Wales, long overlooked, is seen, recognised and fully celebrated.
The Candleman by Catherine Fisher is out now.
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To celebrate National Storytelling Week in Wales, we’ve put together our favourite books that are best read aloud. Gather round for dramatic tales from Welsh mythology, magical fairy tales, and beautiful songs and poems. I ddathlu Wythnos Genedlaethol Adrodd Stori yng Nghymru, rydyn ni wedi llunio rhestr o’n hoff lyfrau sydd wych i’w darllen ar goedd (yn uchel). Dewch ynghyd am storïau dramatig o chwedlionaeth Cymru, storïau tylwyth teg hudol, a chaneuon a cherddi hardd.
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Children love the repetition and rhythm of rhymes. Here is a selection of books to share with children that aims to promote and encourage fun and enjoyable rhyme sharing for children in Wales aged 0–5, in Welsh and English. It’s rhyming fun for everyone!
